Terrorists attack Peshawar airport, 7 killed

Pakistani police officers gather beside an armored vehicle near the site of rocket attack. (AP Photo)

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PESHAWAR: At least seven people were killed and more than 50 injured when militants launched a coordinated attack on Peshawar airport in Pakistan's northwest on Saturday.

According to police officials, militants fired a volley of rockets from the nearby Khyber tribal area on Peshawar airport. Soon after rockets hit the airport, at least five insurgents armed with explosives, rocket launchers, assault rifles, and suicide vests, attacked the airport.

"Few minutes after the rockets were fired, five militant wearing suicide jackets attacked the Peshawar airport hurling grenades and firing with automatic rifles killing at least four persons and injuring dozens of others. A gunbattle broke out between security forces and militants after the rocket attack. All the five attackers were killed by the security forces," said Mian Iftikhar Hussain, information minister of Khyber Pakhtunkwa province. He said that two rockets exploded on the runway, one fell on a van while another exploded in an open space. The dead included five attackers, he added.

The injured were rushed to the Khyber Teaching Hospital near the airport.

"We received injured with bullet, shrapnel and rocket shell casing wounds. Some of them are in critical condition,' the hospital administrator said. Women and children are also among the injured as two rockets fell on the residential area. Local TV footage showed people near the airport rushing for safety as the attack occurred. One car was damaged by the rocket fire and another was set on fire.

Peshawar airport is used as a base by the Pakistan Air Force as well as for commercial flights. A PAF spokesperson said that the attackers fired rockets to make their way into the airport but the security forces kept them at bay. They could not enter the premises, he said.